AHDB welcomes publication of England's first Land Use Framework

England’s first Land Use Framework, published by Defra yesterday (18 March), is a welcome step towards taking a more strategic, long-term approach to how our finite amount of land can meet the ever-growing land use demand.

With increasing pressure from food production, climate change, nature recovery, housing and infrastructure, the ability to make clearer and better-informed land-use decisions is central to achieving an environmentally sustainable and economically resilient future.

Farmers and land managers are recognised as being at the heart of delivering many of the framework’s outcomes, producing healthy sustainable food, both mitigating and adapting to climate change, supporting nature recovery and protecting our soils and waterways.

We welcome the drive to improve the availability of decision-making data, and as an evidence-based organisation, making better use of data and establishing baselines are fundamental for aiding decision making.

It is good to see the Land Use Framework echo these messages.

The framework set out the principles, footprint and ambition to achieve this and we look forward to working with government to help underpin it with robust evidence, clear assumptions and actionable outcomes.

We will be analysing the framework in more depth and letting our levy payers know in the near future what it means for them.